It’s Back to Beta Time

3/15/20 Maple Leaf neighborhood

After I filled my last everyday-carry Stillman & Birn Zeta, I switched to an S&B Epsilon, which I use frequently for still lives at my desk but had never used as a daily sketchbook. When I use soft graphite, I often leave the facing page blank (since it tends to get smudgy), so it seemed more economical to use Epsilon’s thinner pages instead of Zeta. And I like the surface with both graphite and colored pencils. But what I hadn’t thought about was that the thinner pages are also less opaque, so ghosting is visible. It’s full now, and I probably won’t use it again as a daily-carry.

Today is the equinox, and I’ve been seeing lots of pink blossoms and yellow daffodils on my neighborhood walks, so I’m optimistic that I’ll be using my spring palette soon (I want to feel optimistic about at least one thing). It’s time to switch back to a S&B Beta, which is still my favorite with water-soluble colored pencils.